133 days of Kashmir caged: the poster directly links the struggle against occupation of Kashmir with the struggle in India against the Citizenship Act which legalizes the marginalization & persecution of Muslims.

There is lots of news on Twitter about the protests in India against the Citizenship Act. As there should be since they are so monumentally important in pushing back the thrust toward fascism. But there is no news at all from occupied Kashmir. It is impossible for Kashmiri journalists to work & hard for international journalists to operate in Kashmir under the conditions imposed by India but does that mean the few that went there packed up & went home? Are they afraid of getting caught up in a hunt to kill operation in Kashmir, afraid of the Indian Army, or have they just decided Kashmir’s news cycle time has elapsed? Is that also why they no longer report from the several US-NATO wars zones, even embedded with the troops?

Nationalist Indian media & Russian propaganda sites like RT are reporting that violent protesters are torching buses & engaged in other acts of violence in New Delhi. In fact, the unarmed protesters are peaceful. The violence is all coming from police attacks with tear gas & truncheons on protesters. If the protesters attempt to defend themselves, that is not violence but self-defense.

Do you think Tulsi Gabbard’s associations with Indian fascism will tank her candidacy? Many Assad supporters, including the hapless Rania Khalek, are still promoting her, thus exposing their political affinities with fascist ideology. (Just for the record Khalek & her associates Ben Norton & Max Blumenthal just came out publicly to oppose the democracy protests in Iran & Lebanon.)

A list from Forbes of countries who shut down the internet the most to silence dissent:

India (154 times, with Kashmir accounting for much of that)
Pakistan (19 times)
Iraq (8 times, Iraq is under US occupation)
Syria (8 times, where not shut down, bombed into silence)
Turkey (7 times)
D.R. Congo (5 times)
Ethiopia (5 times)
Iran (4 times)
Chad (3 times)
Egypt (3 times)

It is reported on Twitter that protests against the Citizenship Act in India reverberate with slogans for Kashmir. As one Kashmiri in India said, “So they wanted to Indianize Kashmir. Just wait and watch the Kashmirization of India now.”

Two tweets about the brutal attacks by Delhi police on students at Jamia Millia University in New Delhi protesting the legalization of marginalizing & persecuting Muslims:

“Police has entered in Jamia Millia campus from all sides and is continuously firing tear gas shells. Many students and locals are injured. The whole area has been cordoned off. It is time we expose this anti-Muslim character of Delhi Police. Delhi Police must stop.”

–tweeted by Kawalpreet Kaur @kawalpreetdu

“These scenes of police brutality inside Jamia Millia are straight from the manual of Third Reich. Police barging inside the library, masjid and canteen to beat up students. Tear gas, pepper gas, stun grenades, lathis. Shoes and blood on the ground. Ye Elahi reham.”

–tweeted by Suaid Ahmad @SuaidAhmad

“My brother was an infant when he was detained alongside our mother. He is Kashmir’s youngest political prisoner, jailed at a time when he couldn’t spell his own name. In prison, when mother asked for baby-food, Indian authorities denied it, saying he wasn’t on records.”

–tweeted by Ahmed Bin Qasim

Did I mention that in my nun days at no time did anyone hassle me about my garb? With a bonnet & a veil on my head I had a lot more covering than a hijab. Some Catholic orders wear flying buttresses on their heads. When we were out in public, we were treated like rock stars, not vilified as bots controlled by men & religion. Women have the right to wear what they choose without being patronized as the ventriloquist dummies of husbands & imams.

The longer the siege in Kashmir goes on & the less the news coverage, the higher everyone’s anxiety levels go about what is happening to the remarkable people of Kashmir. India is hoping we’ll tire of the wait & go away. But India cannot hope to humiliate or exhaust the spirit of azaadi, of Kashmiri resistance & their struggle for freedom. We don’t know if we will ever meet our Kashmiri friends on social media again. But we want them, & quite frankly, we want India to know that we will never go away, that we will stand with Kashmir until the last Indian troop has been withdrawn & Kashmiris have finally won freedom & self-determination.